$400,000 goes from bottom to top of Manteca resale market

A 1,482-square-foot home with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, dual pane windows, new interior paint and a large backyard sold for $400,000 in the 300 block of North Powers in April of 2006.

That was considered a bargain back then.

A similar-sized home in the same general neighborhood sold recently for $140,000.

That amount was about $5,500 less than another home sold for earlier this year on nearby Sheridan Avenue that had almost the same square footage.

It underscores the one trend so far from 2010 you can take to the bank: The bottom of the three bedroom, two bathroom home, market pricing is on an upswing. It has grown steadily since mid -2009 as one of the most positive signs that the market is moving toward some degree of normalcy.Buyers who can afford such homes - and not much more - should take note of the trend.

What isn’t happening when such homes increase in price is a corresponding rise in two bedroom homes values or those three bedroom homes with one bathroom. They haven’t dropped in value in the past four months but they haven’t gone up either.

Typically they are the most susceptible to market pressures since more people can afford them so there are a lot of people chasing a smaller number of homes. However, the glut of housing thanks to foreclosures is allowing people on the bottom of the house buying pyramid to buy more home than they could afford in “normal” times in Manteca hence the price pressures in the $120,000 to $160,000 range.

For the record, only four homes have sold in the past three months for $400,000 or more in Manteca

That $400,000 spent in 2006 today would buy 2,000 more square feet of home and a house that is 50 years newer.

And perhaps more important $400,000 was the bottom of the Manteca market just four years ago in terms of the resale of existing homes. Now it is the top of the market.